Demand for qualifications set to soar

Demand for the best graduates is set to soar across Europe for the next
three years, a study reveals. The Eurograduate Survey of EU Recruitment Trends
finds that 70 per cent of organisations are planning to increase the number of
graduates they take on until at least 2004.

Those planning for growth aim to increase graduate numbers by 17 per cent in
2002. Fifty per cent of the European HR or recruit-ment managers and directors
surveyed also state they are seeking to take on 350 or more graduates across
Europe this year, and 23 per cent are looking to recruit more than 500.

The survey claims nearly half of all corporate organisations in the EU find
it hard to recruit graduates of the right calibre. The reasons include a lack
of interpersonal, technical and communication skills and business awareness.
The engineering sector has the most problems recruiting graduates, with 61.5
per cent of respondents from the industry reporting difficulties, followed by
the IT sector with 38.5 per cent of those surveyed finding it a problem.

The research shows that more than a quarter of the graduates recruited last
year were hired across EU borders and of all the graduates recruited in the EU
this year, 70 per cent can expect to go on cross-border assignments.